234 – Julien Galtier of The Bubbles Company – Gamifying Proximity Marketing

The first connected objects hosted in points of sale, helping retailers and brands to convert new customers in-store with an innovative “Drive to Purchase " mechanism... Julien Galtier, Partner and General Manager North-America for The Bubbles Company (a proximity marketing solution platform) joins Rob Sanchez, Marc Raco and guest host Nataliya Makulova on location at Valtech’s Innovation Lab during NRF 2018 in New York. Valtech is a global digital agency focused on business transformation. MouthMedia Network is Powered by Sennheiser. In this episode: The origin of the The Bubbles Company name, being from digital a space, used to run a digital agency in France and Canada, and the team decided to explore innovation and tech proximity (location based) marketing -- with tech in beacons, NFC, geo-fencing, and wanting to bring it further to help retailers bring digital into physical stores and venues, and improve consumer experience -- one component was smart charging station beacon/NFC ready and was bubble-shaped Operating systems evolving so fast, it is hard for retailer to keep up with it and make sure stores have right technology A turn-key solution and way to address tech problems very simply, and once brands are capable of identifying anyone entering store, and interact with that person, what type of interaction will be triggered into their phone or digital screen----an ad or coupon? Gamification technology, such as discounts, winning a discount – how it helps not damage brand image, and the consumer is more excited about brand promotion The psychology of discounting Dealing with legalities of lottery like gamification, given various legal environments depending on geography/country How the technical platform not impacted, just the way it was it is executed, to accommodate various legal requirements People gaming the system, the company can’t prevent weird people from acting weird, but company can make life difficult, and it is handed in terms of service. The Bubbles Company’s expertise is proximity marketing, making sure the given code or game only works at a given store at a given location Core value: The Bubbles can close the loop because the consumer is playing on smart phone, so can place a tiny remarketing tag on phone---build three audiences: (1) people who engaged with game, but haven’t gone to end of process, so remarket to them (2) the people who made a purchase but lost, and (3) those who made a purchase and won Keeping a conversation going with different kinds of messages depending on experiences No app because that’s one of key insights in early years, hardware in store is complicated It is more a promotion that has been gamified, instead of a game that has a promotion Travel, kids, and early interest in computers, technology and games